Top 5 JavaScript Frameworks

JavaScript has recently been named as one of the best programming languages to learn in 2017 by IBM, so naturally its popularity is in a huge rise and it’s not planning to stop any time soon. That has led to the development of a very vibrant ecosystem and other technologies and frameworks connected to it. Now, so many frameworks and libraries exist that it can be really confusing when you are supposed to choose one. If you are looking for a JavaScript framework, here are the ones that you should definitely keep in mind:

AngularJS

Angular JS is an open-source JavaScript based front-end web application framework mainly maintained by Google. It was originally developed in 2009 by Misko Hevery at Brat Tech LLC. Angular JS is a model-view-controller (MVC) framework, aiming to make HTML dynamic. It can produce code really fast compared to other frameworks and you can test separate pieces of applications very easily. One of its really big advantages is that when you make a change in the back-end, it’s visible in the UI right away. It is also the most used JavaScript framework for SPAs (Single Page Application) development. Angular JS is a full-featured framework and probably the most popular framework among developers. One of the few disadvantages is that it is a little bit difficult to learn.

ReactJS

ReactJS is more a library than a framework, but still it’s worth mentioning in this list. While AngularJS is a MVC framework, React S is a non-MVC framework developed by Facebook and their community. It allows you to create reusable UI components and it stands behind user interfaces of Facebook and Instagram. You can make really complex updates with React and your applications will still be fast because the framework itself is quick and it can handle them. You can also write many small reusable files, instead of writing one large file. It’s best for large programs with a lot of data. One of the disadvantages of this framework is that it uses only view layer of the app, so for other technologies you’ll need to use other tools.

MeteorJS

MeteorJS was released in 2012 and is a full-stack framework which covers all the phases of the development cycle, including back-end development, front-end rendering, and database management. It’s an open-source isophobic framework written with NodeJS. MeteorJS is a very simple and easy-to-understand framework and all the packages and libraries can be used at pace. All changes in the back-end are immediately transmitted to the UI and it requires only JavaScript for client and server development. It is mostly used for real-time application development by companies like IKEA and Mazda. It is not recommended for large and complex applications.

VueJS

After you’ve learnt React and Angular, you can try VueJS, a progressive JavaScript framework used for user interfaces development. It’s good for quick development and cross-platform solutions. Comparing to Angular and React, it is proven to be faster and it takes the best from both of them. VueJS was first created by Evan You, who worked in Google using Angular, and his idea was to simply extract what he liked about Angular and build something simple without the extra concepts involved. All Vue templates are HTML-based and you can find a lot of downloads on GitHub. It also offers two-way data binding and server-side rendering. In Vue, you can use the template syntax or choose to directly write render functions using JSX.

BackboneJS

Backbone is also an MVP model and it depends on the Underscore.js library. It’s designed to develop single-page web applications and for keeping different parts of web applications synchronized. It adopts an imperative programming style, unlike Angular where declarative programming is used. Backbone is synced with back-end, so when a model changes, the HTML of the application is automatically updated. Backbone.js was used to build many well-known applications like Groupon, Airbnb, Digg, Foursquare, Hulu, Soundcloud, Trello and many others, because it allows creating mobile applications in an organized format.

Choosing the right JavaScript framework is never easy, you have to carefully decide what kind of features you need to add to your app. All the frameworks have different functionalities and each has their pros and cons. If you need help deciding which JavaScript framework is ideal for your app, contact the experienced team of developers at Valoso Hub.